Two Competing Mummy Screenplays?

Universal has tapped Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray to pen a second, competing script for The Mummy reboot. Now why go and do that?

By IGN Staff

Last year, Universal announced that they had plans to reboot The Mummy series, with John Spaihts, the original screenwriter of Prometheus, set to pen the screenplay. But now the studio has tapped another writer, The Hunger Games' Billy Ray, to work on a second, competing script.

According to Vulture, both versions of the story are set in the present day. The idea here is that with two screenplays in the works, Universal is essentially doubling their chances at having a final draft ready for shooting this summer or early fall. As one insider put it, "Studios don't shoot movies anymore. They shoot release dates."

Indeed, hiring two writers seems like an odd move, but the insider continued, "My suspicion is that one of them will be a 'structure-and-body' man, and one's going to be a 'character-and-dialogue' man -- and that they'll then just gang-bang them together into one script, crediting both writers." That said, this competitive screenwriting process is rarely used "because credit arbitration is usually a nightmare."

Of course, the one who's really coming out on top in all of this is the film's director Len Wiseman, whose Total Recall reboot lost Sony Pictures more than $50 million last summer. In that regard, it makes sense to bring in someone as experienced as Ray to ensure The Mummy's success (the scribe's past works include Flightplan and State of Play). In any case, Universal hopes to have the reboot ready to go for a Summer 2014 release.